We were going to do a review of 2016's news, but it seems not a lot happened.
So instead, we’re looking to our little helpers. Not pets, window cleaners, or little blue pills, but apps. We all rely on them: some apps more than others.
There are those that help us work, the ones that take the pressure off life admin, and the modern equivalent of ‘executive’ desk puzzles that take our mind off things a little. Some are specific to our roles; others bring us together. Some work seamlessly between desktop and mobile; some are so specialised they’re tied to a device.
Whatever they’re for, cue the drums: here is our hit list of outstanding apps from the past year, and what we love about them:
James
Slack - Having all communications in one place, and not having to search through emails, text messages, tweets, instant messages, etc. Also being notified about all other systems when actions happen.
Laura
Ring - Knowing who is at the door, and never missing deliveries from Amazon!
Paul
Runway HD - An easy way to help plan drone flights showing airfields, NOTAMs (a heads up about hazards) and airspace categories.
WeatherPro - Shows almost everything we need in flight planning both before, and on, the flight date.
Mark
Procreate (for iOS) - I use it on my iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil and it has changed how I work. It has almost totally replaced Photoshop for me with regard to digital illustration. The only thing keeping me subscribed to Adobe CC at this point is Illustrator...
Marcus
Sketch - It pays my bills.
Brackets - It's awesome: when I dabbled in HTML/CSS the live preview was so useful (and the plugins). I don’t understand why it isn’t more popular. I think a lot of people just use Sublime without even checking out Brackets!
Roddy
Google Maps - Whilst life in the 90s had a lot to recommend it (Baby Spice), I don’t miss the days of standing at frosty rural bus stops for hours. Aligning the map with the compass gets me quickly to places I’ve never visited, having checked opening times, public transport routes and even seen what the front door looks like on StreetView.
7 Words - A great game of time-capped fun. A free daily puzzle where you piece together answer tiles to crossword clues.
That’s 2016’s crop. None of this is to say that we’ll keep these when a better more useful, more fluid app comes along. We got rid of Slack for a while for Skype but switched back as Slack launched updates and expansions. But at Method we’re always finding new apps that help our workflow, communication or planning.
Are there any you’d recommend we try? Comment below...
